<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" Content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">

<TITLE>RARFILES.LST - set file order in solid archives</TITLE>
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</HEAD>

<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000">

<OBJECT TYPE="application/x-oleobject" CLASSID="clsid:1e2a7bd0-dab9-11d0-b93a-00c04fc99f9e">

	<PARAM NAME="Keyword" VALUE="RARFILES.LST - set file order in solid
archives">
</OBJECT>

<P class="title"><A NAME="HELPRARFILESLST"></A>RARFILES.LST - set
file order in solid archives<hr></P>

<P>Files in a solid archive are usually sorted by extension. It is
possible to set an alternative file order using a special file, <B>
rarfiles.lst</B> (this should be in the same folder as WinRAR.exe or
in <a href="HELPAppData.htm">%APPDATA%\WinRAR folder</a>). It is already
provided in the WinRAR distributive, but may be customized for user files set.
This is a plain text file, which defines the order of files when a solid
archive is created. The file rarfiles.lst may contain file names, wildcards
and a special entry - <B>$default</B>. The default entry defines the place
in the order list for files not matched with other entries in rarfiles.lst.</P>

<P>Tips to provide improved compression and speed of operation:</P>


<ul>
  <li> Similar files should be grouped together in the archive if possible;</li>
  <li> Frequently accessed files should be placed at the beginning.</li>
</ul>
<P>Normally masks placed nearer to the top of list have a higher priority,
but there is an exception from this rule. If rarfiles.lst contains
such two masks that all files matched by one mask are also matched
by another, that mask which matches a smaller subset of file names
will have a higher priority regardless of its position in the list.
For example, if you have *.cpp and f*.cpp masks, f*.cpp has a higher
priority, so the position of 'filename.cpp' will be chosen according
to 'f*.cpp', not '*.cpp'.</P>

<h1><B>Example of rarfiles.lst</B></h1>

<p class="noindent">
file_id.diz<br>
readme.*<br>
*.doc<br>
*.txt<br>
*.hlp<br>
*.inf<br>
*.exe<br>
*.dll<br>
$default<br>
*.rar<br>
</p>

</BODY>
</HTML>
